Don't Omit Abstinence

GREAT BRITAIN HAS a high rate of teen pregnancies -- the highest in western Europe. The rate of unwed British teens is twice that of Germany and three times that of France.

Not that we are pointing fingers at our friends across the pond. Even with the recent decline in teen pregnancies in the United States, our rate is higher than that of Great Britain.

However, we were interested in British government strategies unveiled last week by Prime Minister Tony Blair to combat the problem.

The plan relies heavily on schools and will use school nurses as what the Associated Press calls a gateway for advice and help. The "help" includes arranging for British teens to receive contraceptives.

Girls even under the age of 16 will be able to receive contraceptives without their parents' being informed.

Other recommended strategies will have at least some value as possible deterrents to teen sex. A government agency will be assigned to go after teen-age fathers, and teen-age mothers would be denied government housing and would be placed in supervised hostels.

The teen-age pregnancy rates are at record levels, and the recommendations are progressive. But we wonder whether the strategies include education about abstinence education.

It is far less radical than giving contraceptives to girls under 16, and it has been proven successful with a significant percentage of the teen population in the United States. Programs such as True Love Waits, where teens support and encourage each other to remain virgins until they are married, work for many people.

Will encouraging abstinence work with every teen-age girl? No, and we do not recommend it as a sole approach. But it will be successful with some, and it will protect them not only from unwanted pregnancies but from sexually transmitted diseases.